Delete: Up in Smoke
by rose in the snow
Summary: What can you do when the person you care about most must face off against the game programmers? What can you do as you wait to be deleted and leave behind the person you can't live without? These are the things that Swizz and Cynethia are learning to cope with and hopefully avoid. Swirled Smoke pairing.
1. Chapter 1

Delete: Up in Smoke

The rebellious racer, that's what Cynethia was. She had been programmed to rebel against everything including the boy she was closest to although Swizz wasn't the most obedient racer that was in Sugar Rush. She was older than the other racers and taller too.

She leaned against a tree in the doublestripe forest, where anyone could see her. They never did see her though. She, like Vanellope, had a special power. She could disappear and reappear at will. That's why she could stand there without the other racers seeing her.

She took a box of candy cigarettes out of one pocket of her leather jacket. She pulled one out and put it her mouth before returning the box. The candy cigarette was a fancy one that looked like a real cigarette. The end was orange and tasted the same. The top was white and tasted like whipped cream. It was that way in all the candy cigarettes in Sugar Rush.

'It's strange to think that I'm based on candy cigarettes but the cigarettes are based on orange creamsicles.'

The day was cool and there were few karts out in Sugar Rush since the arcade had been closed for Christmas. She probably could reappear for now but it would feel strange to appear during the day. That's why the gamers and Turbo never saw her but Swizz and some of the others did.

Swizz drove up in his kart, knowing that she was waiting for him there. It was tradition. "Hey Cyndy." He said.

She reappeared in front of him. It didn't even surprise him any more. He still liked when she did it but he was used to it by now. "Hey Swizz." She said with a smile on her face.

Swizz couldn't help notice her beauty ever time he was with her. She had pink cheeks that seemed to glow like the end of a cigarette. Her eyes were brown with orange spots that showed up in the light. Her hair was black and long like burnt ash. She wore a white t-shirt underneath a black leather jacket. She also wore a black leather skirt, orange tights and black sneakers. Around her waist she had a orange belt with a revolver in a holsteer at her side.

"How was racing today?" She asked.

"Pretty good. I won first 3 times and second 5 times." He decided to keep it brief since he felt bad that Cynethia couldn't race.

"That's even better than yesterday." She said with a smile. Swizz smiled. She always there to support him. He felt bad when she smiled like that.

He took her hand and said "I wish I could could race with you."

The smile fell from her face and she became still. "You know why I can't."

"I know that the programmers have been trying to delete you ever since this whole wave of 'candy cigarettes are bad since they promote smoking' but you shouldn't be afraid of them, Cyndy."

She blushed without control since he had called her by her nickname, something that only he spoke. "They're looking for me. I know they are. They're trying to delete me. It's gotten worse and I know they'll start coming for me everyday once the new year starts. I just have a terrible feeling in my stomach. We should just enjoy the time we have now." She said, cradling his hand in hers.

He wanted to pull his hand away. He wanted to tell her that she was wrong and that they would get out of this. That had split up in the 14 years that Turbo had controlled Sugar Rush but they had gotten back together after. It had been a year and 1/2 now since Vanellope had taken over. He didn't want her to leave or get taken from him. He truly did love her, even though he did flirt with others, especially Minty. Cyndy knew it was part of his code. She wasn't just a pretty face, not like the others. "Please Cyndy, just for a week. Nobody will be here. The arcade opens again Janurary 2nd so until then could you please just meet the others and race too? Please Cyndy?"

She looked at his face and could feel herself breaking. Swizz was all she had, how could she say no to him? "Uh, sure I'll do it but only for these two weeks."

"Oh thank you Cyndy." Swizz said and kissed her cheek. "I want to go introduce you to everyone."

"Do we have to?" She asked. "I'd rather if we didn't have to."

Swizz was ready to start begging but he decided to hold off for a bit. 'Cyndy's usually right so I should just wait a little. I did just get her to agree to something that I've been begged her to do for over a year now.'

He was so happy that she had agreed but that also scared him to his very code. That meant the Cyndy was serious. They truly did want to delete her.

There was that word again, 'delete'. A word that sounded menacing and for any video game character it meant their life was over. The word was death and then nothing.

Swizz and all the otber characters knew that there was nothing that could be done when the programmers wanted to delete someone. It was the same as being sentenced to death. A character had to just wait until it was over.

The idea of Cyndy waiting to be executed, sadden and terrified him.

"Do you want to go to the Sugar Rush tavern?" He asked, hoping to go there and forget about her upcoming execution.

"Do you really me to go there and meet the others?" She asked.

"Yes, please Cyndy." He said holding her hand still.

"If you really want me to, I'll go." She said with a shrug.

"Oh thank you Cyndy! I can't wait for the others to me you. I know that they'll love you." He said with a smile. "Do you want to come in my kart?"

She hesitated before nodding. She knew that she could get out of this if she just got on her bike and drove away but she knew she had to try to make an effort.

She climbed into the barely there passenger seat after hiding her motorbike. Swizz kissed her cheek lightly before headed off into the middle of Sugar Rush


	2. Chapter 2

Delete: Up in Smoke chapter 2

The Sugar Rush tavern was easy to spot. It was made out a 4 dark chocolate walls and there were glowing icing signs around the walls. The signs had a special code that made them glow like neon.

Swizz parked on the side of the building and they both got out of the kart. Cynethia took a deep breath and made sure that she was visable. Swizz went over and held the door open to her and she stepped inside.

The inside was also made of dark chocolate with neon icing signs. There were many unknown racers sitting inside. Most had their eyes covered and at least one tattoo on their arms. Some had large gummy snakes tattooed around their biceps. Others had gummy bears. Most of the others couldn't be seen.

When Cynethia walked inside, a couple of the racers looked up. Swizz saw thst these eyes looked at Cynethia with dirty greedy thoughts. Swizz saw these racers and while he was scared of them, he had to protect Cynethia. He turned to see that she was gazing around the tavern with a smile on her lips.

This was one of few places where Cynethia felt at home. She usually stayed here when the races were going on. She owned it but she had other people work as bartenders and waiters. She had thought of working here but she was afraid someone might come and find her. She wasn't good with people.

Cynethia walked over to the batender who had been serving soda behind the bar. All the guys in the tavern watched with strange smiles as she began to pour soda for the customers.

Swizz didn't like it that they had these strange looks and walked right up to the bar and sat down. "Orange soda please Cyndy." She nodded and came back with a soda. "Thanks." He said and kissed her as she gave it to him. Cynethia turned pink as he did this. The others in the tavern didn't seem to mind Swizz kissing her.

"What caused the courage? A minute ago, you didn't want to talk to anyone. Now your serving soda in front of everyone."

Cynethia shrugged as someone stood and walked toward the bar. "Sprite." He said and sat next to Swizz. She got it and he nodded with a smile. He went back to his sat.

"I don't know where the courage comes from. I just can overcome my doubts sometimes. Whenever I do, I'm always glad that I did."

The tavern seemed to quiet as one racer walked inside. He was big, at least 7 inches taller than Swizz and 4 inches taller than Cynethia. He was buff and picked up a chair in his way and smashed it. There were 2 large gummy worms on his biceps. The tattoo "Mini" was on his chest. He said nothing but walked to the bar.

Cynethia tried not to become invisible when he got closer to the bar but it was hard. He was almost there when she controlled herself. "Cocoa with mini marshmallows." Cynethia nodded as the large racer sat down. "So what's your name, sweetart?" He asked.

"Cynethia Ci Garette." She said as she poured water from a coffee pot into a cup. She took several pieces of chocolate and melted them in the boiling water.

"You new here?" The large racer asked. Cynethia looked up quickly and nodded before stirring the hot chocolate. "Oh, what a treat for me!" He said with a booming laugh. It nearly shook the whole place and some glass bottles in the fridge could be heard clacking together like they were being toasted.

When he finally finished laughing, he looking at her and said "By the way, name's Mini, like mini marshmallows."

"That will be easy to remember." Cynethia said just trying to be polite as she went into the back room to look for marshmallows.

"She really is one of the hottest girls that I have every seen." Mini said aloud to no one person.

Swizz had to reply "To bad she's taken." Feeling a smile come over his lips, he quickly took a drink.

Mini simply shrugged at what he said "I'll make her mine and she'll forget all about the boy she's with now. She needs a real man."

"Maybe the person she's with now is a real man." Swizz said and slammed down his drink on the counter. The tavern grew quietier as the others waited for Mini's reaction.

Swizz knew that he shouldn't have said that but he didn't like to be insulted the same way he didn't like Cynethia being called any rude names. He had always been overprotective of her every since she told him about her deletion. Swizz's overprotective personality toward Cynethia was the only reason why he was still there looking up at his competitor's big but narrowed dark brown eyes as Mini took off his dark sunglasses.

Swizz began to recoil and call upseting his opponent, a racer wearing a white t-shirt, black leather vest, jeans and biker boots, a dumb thing to do in his mind. Swizz didn't change his outward appearance though and still looked as confident as if he was racing Rancis. Swizz knew what was going to happen would be desultory but it was too late.

Jumping down from the barstool he was sitting on, Mini grabbed wooden chair and swung it as Swizz's head. Quckly ducking the blow and grabbing the cup of still steaming hot chocolate, Swizz threw it in Mini's face and made contact with Mini's eyes. Groping around for a napkin, Swizz decided to take this chance to look for another weapon to attack Mini with.

Too bad the other racers in the bar had circled around the two racers and Swizz couldn't see anything since They cast a dark shadow over him and he couldn't see from the lighting in room.

Mini grabbed Swizz by the hood of his jacket and lifted him above the ground. Cynethia, having finally found the marshmallows, stood in the door way to the main room of the tavern with a unreadable expression. Anger about the tavern getting destroyed, anger at Swizz for not being more careful about what he said, and annoyance for reasons she didn't understand.

Cynethia went into the back room and found the candy citizen organizing supplies. "Get ready to bartend again." Cynethia said to her and went back into the main room without another word. She took a deep breath and disappeared. She pushed aside the crowds and found Swizz and Mini in the center.

She saw Mini set Swizz down ans prepared to smash a chair over his head. She went over grabbed Swizz's jacket hood and pulled him to his feet and away from the chair as it slammed to the ground. Swizz wanted to face Mini but Cynethia wouldn't let him. She pulled him out of the tavern and reappeared outside.

She through him to the ground. "What was that for? I could have done that for myself." Swizz cried as he dusted some of the powdered sugar from his clothes.

Cynethia took a candy cigarette out of the box and put it in her mouth. "I know but you didn't. He could have killed you."

"I would have regenerated."

"Regenerated here? If not then I would have been in there alone and you wouldn't able to protect me." Swizz looked her as if she had read his mind. "Yeah I know how you are. That's why you were do that."

"You are acting like this is no big deal. Can't you show a little more emotion about what I was trying to do for you. I know how you are too Cyndy. You try and shut out the world but you can't and its because you're afraid."

"You're right, I'm scared but it's not because I'm trying to shut out the world." Cynethia cried as her voice cracked. "I'm scared because I couldn't control what was going to happen. I've had so many bad things happen in my life, I feel like I need to control everything I can to make sure I stop as many bad things as possible. You know I'm no good with people, what if they do something or say something and I don't know how to respond? That scares me. Back there I didn't know what Mini was going to do." She crossed her arms in front of her to herself from the idea. "I don't want to lose you Lollipop. I just love you so much."

Swizz came over and hugged her. "I'm sorry for scaring you so much."

"It's okay." Cynethia said in a whisper.

"I'll try and not do it again. I love you more than anything. Why don't we go to Pancake Platters and have some breakfast and figure out what to do next, okay?"

Cynethia nodded ans walked over to the passenger side of his kart and got in. Swizz could see she was still thinking deeply as the candy cigarette was still in her mouth. 'I ask her what she's thinking about when we get there.' He thought to himself. He kissed her cheek, making her blush, and drove toward the restaurant.


End file.
